It takes the timeless parkour and fluid combat of the series and injects it with a progression loop that encourages skill, practice, and a constant search for better gear. It’s a game that respects your time even when you fail, ensuring that every run, no matter how short, contributes to your overall strength. The exquisite comic-book art, the fluid controls, and the challenging enemies all come together to create a compelling and addictive experience. While the inherent repetition of the roguelike genre may not appeal to every player, those who embrace the challenge will find a deeply rewarding platformer that pays homage to its roots while confidently forging a new path.

Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes is without a doubt the best Elemental game to date.

Police Simulator: Patrol Officers is an enjoyable but fairly unremarkable simulation game that is held up in large part by its steady progression system and fairly extensive game mechanics, but is conversely held back by the lack of optimization, the sometimes unbearably-poor lighting system, and a series of other bugs affecting both the gameplay and the world design. While diehard simulation enthusiasts might get a kick out of the experience, casual players, or those on a tight budget, would likely instead benefit from holding off until the game reaches a more finished state.

All in all, World War Z is a pretty fun experience. It’s one that definitely surprised me, as the developers in my opinion didn’t put their best foot forward with the trailers. It still may not appeal to people who weren’t fans of the movie, but if you’re a fan of zombie games, especially co-op experiences like Left 4 Dead, it’s a solid experience at a relatively cheap price for the amount of gameplay and replay value you’re getting. Just make sure you’re playing with friends, as playing with randoms is often as bad as playing with the single player AI.

My relationship with the faction was positive, I had visited their cities and towns, but - for some reason - this one port just smashed my ship into smithereens before I could do anything and I respawned at my previous stop sans some of my cargo and money (the punishment for dying), cursing the fact that there’s no way to save your game.

Were it not for the fact that SimCity’s servers have been so broken, the above criticisms would have been all there was to complain about. Unfortunately, the decision to design SimCity to only work with an online connection is adding a truckload of other things.

A Little to the Left is a game that I ultimately ended up respecting more than I actually enjoyed it. I can absolutely see how this is going to be a slam dunk for many puzzle solvers out there, but the lack of clear solutions for some of the puzzles simply wasn't up my alley. Luckily I was able to skip or look up the answer for the content I didn't enjoy, and the less abstract and more organizational-styled puzzled did give me that endorphin hit when everything was finally neat and tidy.

The gameplay Whispering Willows delivers serves its purpose, but it’s clear the developer’s aspirations were to immerse the player and draw them in. On that point, this freshman effort is a success.

As pretty as Nightwar is, the need to continually grind within the game creates an experience that is difficult to force yourself through. This is in spite of the truly engaging battle system, which offers layers of strategic combat that make it stand out from similar turn-based RPG’s. There’s a great world to explore in this game; if only it didn’t take so much grinding to properly enjoy it.

UnderMine is an addicting adventure that you can't put down. You could die time and time again but still load up for another run. Despite combat being repetitive over time, and relics not doing much to change the gameplay loop, we are still left with a fun roguelike experience. The progression system and it's permanent unlocks go along way to make things fun. Even when losing items after death, not having to restart completely keeps things refreshing. Boss battles are unique but require careful planning and patience because of challenging combat. With beautiful pixel art and a charming soundtrack, UnderMine is an enjoyable game.

Reaching a singular verdict among the HG team is like getting a group of dogs to share a single bone. However, all of us involved conceded that in regards to the game's visuals, destructive environments, and optimization, Battlefield 6 excels all expectations. However, its mediocre story campaign, its bizarre attempt to clog up maps to favor close-range combat while simultaneously awkwardly trying to keep vehicles marginally viable, and its disappointing new multiplayer modes all detract from the experience. We cautiously recommend Battlefield 6 to casual fans, but more fervent diehards might want to think twice, because this may not necessarily be the Battlefield for you...

In the end, no, this isn’t going to be a game that anyone is probably going to rip out 100 hours of, but it’s a lovely little game for killing a few evenings or a weekend.

While it may be more simplistic now than when I was a kid, there's always something special about planning the perfect ambush with a combination of your GUNNAR sentry, mines and sneaking behind distracted enemies and going for the one-hit kill. Okay, so this is one of those times that nostalgia didn't quite bring me back the game I remembered, BUT if you're a fan of memorable combat set pieces, I can definitely say that is one thing from my memory of the game that definitely held up. It's easily the most important thing.

If Hank: Drowning On Dry Land is meant to serve as a (second) proof of concept for this character and game mechanics, it does so pretty well without actually being hamstrung by that fact. It presents a self-contained story with enough information on our characters' backstories and avoids something like a hard cliffhanger that would drag the entire thing down. It may be short, but it also feels like that's part of the design, and that doesn't take away from the things it does accomplish. At the same time I can see a world where a player stumbles into the intended path and ends up completing it in a fraction of the time I did, and without the desire to view the option paths and elements that would naturally feel a little rushed. I don't hold it against it too much, but it's clear to me that the foundation is solid, so wanting an expansion of this world is expected, and likely by design.

Taken as a whole, Stadium presents the best Trackmania 2 experience. It offers every feature found in last year’s Canyon and for half the price. More importantly, Stadium has adopted the bulk of the community, so new players would be advised to choose this better, cheaper option.

If you’re looking for a game that’s going to engage you with fresh new gameplay mechanics or deep RPG style customization, Reign of Bullets is going to let you down.

The Thaumaturge is a very strange title, both intentionally and sometimes unintentionally as well. On the surface level, it's a dark, narrative-driven game filled with morally-ambiguous choices which will oftentimes influence specific events in the story.

It adds up to a good game with a few shortcomings. For something with such a high level of customization and management, it's almost difficult to believe that things are as good as they are. A few more missteps would have had this game begging for a UI overhaul, but it's not quite that severe in its current state. Other strategic elements such as the power system end up being little more than busy work, and ultimately add little value to the experience. While I wish there were more themes, or a greater distinction between those themes, I will allow them the opportunity to make additions before judging how that strategy turns out. Most importantly for a simulation with hundreds of tiny people on screen: I didn't run into any performance issues, which surely helped me overcome the negatives. I can only imagine it is like starting an actual theme park, a bit of a grind, a ton of complexity, a large amount of choice, but a good pay off if you nail it.

At the end, I found something extremely memorable, with some visuals that are easily some of my favorites of the year, in a package that is good as-is, but would be great if only expanded in scope.

Chernobylite does a masterful job of drawing you in with its story, characters, and core gameplay loop. It’s well worth checking out, even at full price.

Trying to make a game funny can be a big gamble, and a lot of games come off like they are trying too hard, but Three Dead Zed has genuinely good writing and a visual style pleasing to the eye. So, this is where I give the cliché answer and tell you to make your own decision, but for me it lands somewhere in between the two.

For the most part, it was a compelling experience. What made it even more interesting, was knowing that the plot behind the Man of Medan is inspired by a real ship that went missing sometime in the 1940's although a specific date is hard to pin down. It may not be a game for everyone, but for fans of Supermassive's previous work it is definitely worth a look.

Shadow Warrior is the reboot nobody seemed to ask for but are lucky to have gotten anyway. The game is good, bloody fun and a bloody good time.

While the developers may have missed their overall mark of mixing retro style with a story and a crafting system, what they did manage to pull off was the core game itself.

Breathedge: Cosmic Cluck is not a mainline game but a rather a smaller spinoff, a first foray into VR, if you will. It's decent, and if you have a couple of hours and 24.99 to spare, it's a fun venture into the wilds of the Breathedge universe. But it isn't a must buy. This is definitely more for the fans of the mainline game that want more or people that want something new for their Meta Quest and have already exhausted other VR titles.

As it is, the game still comes recommended...but only for non-epileptic players who have a high tolerance for frustration.

Children of Zodiarcs sits you down, makes you feel at home, and presents you with bite-size mechanics that anyone could understand. However, behind the cutesy graphics, and the diorama board-game aesthetic, it is a surprisingly merciless tactical RPG.

If you go into it looking for a game that doesn't give you an easy go of it and expects you to concentrate and really invest in the challenge, then you will find a satisfying and genuinely exciting game here. If you go in expecting tons of flash and colourful presentation then you may be sorely disappointed.